Reflections, Reviews and News from the worlds of Opera and Classical Music

Sunday, 5 February 2017

Semperoper Dresden: Siegfried

29 January 2017

This was the final individual Ring instalment to be presented by Christian Thielemann at the
Semperoper ahead of his tackling the whole lot next season (in January and
early February 2018). Die Walküre was
last January (or at least that’s when I saw it) and Das Rheingold in the Autumn.

It’s a shame that there won’t be a chance to experience Götterdämmerung individually ahead of
the complete cycles, not least because judging by Thielemann’s approach—grandly
conceived, bold, often almost fierce in its sheer sound—I suspect it will be
something properly shattering.

His Siegfried certainly
points that way, since it was it’s most successful in the post-Tristan ardour and pre-Götterdämmerung portentousness of Act 3.
It was there, too, that we were allowed to witness the thrilling spectacle of a
totally secure Brünnhilde (Nina Stemme) and Siegfried (Stephen Gould) soaring
over the Staatskapelle in full flow. At this point Willy Decker’s production—a
co-production with Madrid and first seen here in 2003—opened up as well to
reveal blue, cloud-specked skies.

Before that, the action had often felt rather hemmed in,
with the meta-theatrical conceit of the production, clearly and often cleverly
presented in the first two instalments, becoming somewhat muddled. The
recurring motif of theatre seats—and associated emphasis on the idea of
spectatorship—turned up only at a late stage.

Here, instead, we had Mime giving lessons on a blackboard,
Siegfried bringing a teddy bear in from the forest, a pretty unimpressive
staging of the forging of Nothung and a confusing young Siegfried double as the
Forest Bird—clearly his unconscious on one level, but also, it seemed on a
rather more banal level, his dogsbody. One clever touch, though, was Fafner,
Mime’s crude chalk drawing of which of a dragon coming to life impressively.

(Click to enlarge)

Musically many things were excellent in the first two acts,
with Thielemann managing to get detail as well as grandeur and gravitas from
his players. Dramatically things could have been tighter, though, and Gould is
more persuasive as Siegfried abandons jolly japes for more serious undertakings;
the voice is rock solid throughout, and, though perhaps a little utilitarian in
timbre at full tilt, is capable of some lovely honeyed phrases in more reflective
moments.

He had a more than worthy vocal adversary in the first two
acts from Gerhard Siegel’s Mime, whose finely focused tenor would give many a
Siegfried a run for his money (though happily not this one).

Albert Dohmen was a powerful Alberich, and one who, as a
former Bayreuth Wotan, rather put Markus Marquardt’s Wanderer in the shade.
Marquardt did a decent job as a smoothly sung Walküre Wotan, but lacked true vocal authority and presence here,
as he had done in the Rheingold.
Christa Mayer and Georg Zeppenfeld made up the cast impressively.

It’s the rapturous second half of Act 3 that
will stick in the memory, though—the unspeakably tender winding violin line as
Siegfried ascends to the Walkürenfels in particular (a match, as far as I
remember, for Barenboim and the other Staatskapelle down the road at the
Proms), and the stunning burst of orchestral warmth at Brünnhilde’s awakening.
Moments like that—and much else we've heard so far—suggest the whole cycle could be something special.

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About Me

I am freelance critic, writer and musicologist based in Berlin. I have held editorial posts at Gramophone and Opera, was opera critic of the Spectator and have worked as a critic for the Daily Telegraph and Financial Times. I was editor of 30-Second Opera (Ivy Press, 2015), now also available – when I checked last – in French, German and Spanish. My PhD (awarded from King's College London in early 2011) was a critical reassessment of Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal's 'Die Frau ohne Schatten'; further details of my academic work can be found under 'Publications and Papers'.
If you'd like to email me, I can be reached on hugojeshirley[at]gmail.com.

About this Blog

Fatal Conclusions is designed to serve as a modest outlet for various reviews (of varying levels of formality and punctuality) and ideas regarding what's going on in the Opera and Classical Music worlds--and, if I'm feeling adventurous, beyond. Thanks for popping by. I hope you enjoy reading and please feel free to leave comments.